While farmers continue to face challenges — from global competition and transportation issues to avian influenza and climate change — a ‘micro-agriculture approach’ or backyard gardens can increase access to fresh and nutritious local food as well as create a more resilient food system, advocates say.
Amanda Perez, associate professor and state food systems specialist for the University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture Cooperative Extension Service, said there are plenty of people with different backgrounds growing food at their homes in Arkansas.
When Perez and her husband moved into a suburban house with a flat backyard covered in turf grass they decided to start producing their own food and it has become a family activity.
They planted a kitchen garden, fruit trees and other plants.
“The thing that happens when you start integrating this type of system in your backyard, is everybody wants to be outside,” Perez said.
“Our family went from going out on the weekends to now, where we go outside almost the second we wake up and stay outside after our jobs until its time to go to bed.”
MICRO-AGRICULTURE
North Little Rock backyard gardener Kesha Cobb started growing food 11 years ago, and now grows roughly 2,000 pounds of produce, with more than 100 fruits and vegetables, in her roughly 5,000 square-foot garden in a low-income neighborhood and food desert. Cobb is president and chief executive officer of the nonprofit National Women in Agriculture’s Arkansas chapter and chief executive officer of The Sustainability Project, Inc.
“I wasn’t a second or third generation farmer, so I didn’t have land to start with — I didn’t even have a house to start with, so I started growing at my mom’s place or at a friend’s place,” Cobb said.
When Cobb was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes several years ago, growing her own fresh food, especially leafy greens, became a critical priority to improve her health, and today, she enjoys sharing the fruits of her labors with her neighborhood. Cobb’s property is registered as an urban farm with USDA and she can accept SNAP benefits at a pop-up farmers market she sets up in her carport.
“I’m pretty much my own farmers market here in this food desert, and they know me as a neighbor, they know I’ve grown this food with care,” Cobb said.
Micro-agriculture is oriented toward small-scale producers with limited access to land and resources who can grow food for their family and friends, neighbors and local farm stores, in containers on an apartment patio, in raised beds in a backyard or in local spaces like community gardens.
Growing food full time can be difficult for those with limited experience, so new growers may start out gardening part time in an urban or suburban setting, or jump right into rural homesteading.
“And some of those people are able to take what they grow and sell to their friends and neighbors or create a farmstand or sell at a farmers market,” Perez said. “Instead of people getting into this to become a farmer as a primary profession, I’m advocating that we start having people add agriculture into their lives again, and it can also just be for yourself, so you have fresh vegetables in your backyard or maybe your city zoning allows for chickens so you can have your own eggs.”
These small producers can start farming on very small acreage, Perez said.
“In large cities around the country, people have demonstrated that you can grow a lot of food in very small spaces, so part of it is teaching people how to be creative within these limitations,” she said.
Micro-agriculture is about creating small and sustainable community-focused food systems that can supplement, not replace industrial agriculture.
“We have a very, very small number of agricultural producers who are feeding the majority of people and we have the technologies that have supported the system to be able to do that,” Perez said.
“With local and regional food systems, maybe we need to swing the pendulum back just a little bit so that more people are producing food locally and regionally,” she said. “Take advantage of the affordability, the efficiency and the benefits of the large system, but my argument is, let’s add local and regional food to complement our larger food system so that we have more access to healthy, fresh, higher nutrient-value and more diversified foods within those systems.”
Perez and her team are now working on a project funded by a USDA Regional Food Systems Partnership grant for a statewide needs assessment and outreach programs that can foster food networks in Arkansas.
FOOD INSECURITY
In 2023, the USDA said that nearly 19% of Arkansas’ population experienced food insecurity, ranking the state the highest in the country.
Arkansas was one of seven states in which the prevalence of food insecurity exceeded the national average, at 13.5%, according to a report in September.
In the U.S. overall, grocery prices were 1.6% higher year-over-year in November, egg prices jumped 8.2% from October to November and beef prices rose 3.1% over the past month, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics consumer price index report for November; December’s report is scheduled for release on Jan. 15.
The Arkansas Food Bank has worked with local farmers to distribute locally grown fresh food via a USDA Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Agreement since 2022, securing more than 1.1 million pounds of food for clients to date.
“The intent of this program is to provide a mutually beneficial link between underserved producers and families in need,” said Chief Operations Officer Eric Shelby.
“We work very closely with these distributors and partners to ensure that foods sourced meet the needs of our clients while providing economic opportunity for the farmers … we do not use a formal contract with these farmers, it is managed through pre-approved invoices.”
This year, the food bank distributed 40,419,411 pounds of food, a 4.1% increase year over year, said Chief Programs Officer Sherri Jones.
Lack of access to to fresh, healthy foods is a serious concern in many parts of Arkansas but especially rural communities, Jones said.
“Many of these communities are considered ‘food deserts’ where residents do not have grocery stores within a reasonable distance of their homes,” Jones said. “Instead, they often rely on small convenience stores or gas stations for food purchases.
“Unfortunately, these locations typically lack fresh produce, lean proteins and other nutritious options, offering mostly processed or packaged foods,” she added. “This limited access not only impacts individuals’ ability to maintain a healthy diet but also contributes to broader health disparities, including higher rates of chronic conditions like diabetes and heart disease.”
Every county in Arkansas has at least one food desert and the majority can be found in the Delta and south Arkansas, Jones said.
INTEREST IN URBAN AGRICULTURE
Traditional lifestyle and homesteading content on social media has taken off in recent years, especially in response to food shortages during the pandemic.
“We’re starting to see social media influencers who are growing a huge portion of their food budget out of their backyard,” Perez said.
Influencers have increased their audiences by teaching viewers how to raise animals, grow food and cook from scratch on Tik-Tok and Instagram, offering their followers a look into a world that appears to rely less on conveniences like ready-made food products and more on skilled labor.
“I feel like there’s a really strong desire for people to regain more control over what they grow and what they eat,” Stephen Grace said. Grace became involved in the University of Arkansas at Little Rock’s campus garden shortly after it was created in 2012 when one of his students was part of a group that initially created the space as a pollinator garden.
Asked about their experience, some students at UALR’s campus garden mentioned learning gardening from their grandparents, Grace said.
“It’s almost like in a generation, those basic skills were lost and now people want it back,” Grace said. “They are willing or at least curious enough to find out what it takes, to see if it will be feasible for them to do, and I hope to convince them that it is. Start small, have realistic expectations but yes, you can absolutely grow your own food — and there’s no greater satisfaction than when you eat something you grew yourself.”
Small urban farms and farm stores began sprouting up across Arkansas post-covid, offering locally-grown and -made fresh foods and products, as well as farming and homesteading classes; Bell Urban in Conway began offering a seed saver program to promote native seeds last year and the number of beginning farmers in Arkansas has risen, according to USDA’s most recent agriculture census.
Large cities like Chicago, New York, Los Angeles and Detroit, have implemented urban farming initiatives.
In southeastern Atlanta, a “free food forest” was established on a 7.1-acre former pecan farm — in a food desert where the closest grocery store is a 30-minute bus ride away — as part of the city’s mission to bring healthy food within half a mile of 85% of Atlanta’s 500,000 residents.
In Texas, “agrihoods” have taken root in downtown Houston and east Austin, which combine small community farms with housing, often with the goal of addressing city housing needs, mitigating development pressures and increasing access to local food.
“Most people are familiar with growing fruits and vegetables and herbs and flowers in their backyard, and there’s kind of this scene emerging in some of these towns around the country where people are starting to add agriculture back into their lives; and it’s great for health and nutrition and physical activity,” Perez said.
